Flour Mill set to overhaul Severn Valley auto tank
POPULAR Severn Valley Railway-based GWR auto tank No. 1450 is to undergo its 10-yearly overhaul at Bill Parker's Flour Mill workshop at Bream in the Forest of Dean.
There it will join owner Mike Little's GWR 4575 small 2-6-2T No. 5538, which is undergoing a long and complete restoration, extending to a pair of new cylinder castings.
Built at Swindon in 1935, No. 1450 was bought by the Dart Valley Railway after it was withdrawn from Exmouth Junction shed in May 1965, and became a mainstay of the Buckfastleigh operation until it was sold to Mike and Barry Cordell in 1991.
After spending 10 years on the Dean Forest Railway, it moved to the SVR in 2014 and has visited several other heritage lines.
Until No. 1450 has been dismantled, the extent of the work to overhaul it is unknown. The work on No. 5538 will be set aside until No. 1450 is back in service, said Bill.
Three of a kind
The boiler of sister locomotive No. 5539, owned by Hugh Shipton, arrived at the Flour Mill in June from Llangollen, where it had been partially dismantled.
One of the ‘Barry 10', the frames have been rebuilt by Mike Pearce and are currently in the Plymouth Road shed of the Barry Tourist Railway. The boiler requires extensive repairs, including a new backhead and much of the outer firebox sides and throatplate, the front barrel section and front tubeplate.
Its arrival makes up a trio of class members' boilers at Bream. That of Bill's No. L150 has just passed its hydraulic test. As No. 5521, it was painted in London Transport red, similar to that worn by GWR pannier tanks used by LT until 1971, and renumbered to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Metropolitan Line. Its cab height was reduced to allow it to operate on London Underground's sub-surface lines.